Season ticket, skybox, suite, or loge sales to business customers and companies represent a significant portion of ticket sale revenues, and sports teams, theater groups, orchestras, and other entertainment providers want to further develop and expand the sale of multiple event ticket packages to such business users and companies.
One of the primary disadvantages of purchasing suites, loges, season ticket packages or ticket packages to multiple events from a company or businesses perspective has been the fact that the company must appoint a ticket administrator whose function is to distribute tickets to the individual events to users. Moreover, in order to qualify for certain tax benefits for costs associated with ticket purchases and associated expenses, it may be necessary for the company or ticket package owner to keep records detailing the usage of tickets, the person or persons hosted at each event, and the business purpose fostered by attending the event and associated entertainment expenses. Also, for large companies with multiple departments, it is desirable that the costs of the tickets and associated entertainment expenses by allocated to the correct department and, therefore, creates an accounting or billing problem for the ticket administrator. The administrative problems multiply as more packages are purchased by the company to accommodate client/customer requests.
As such, the administration of ticket packages has developed into a time consuming task which generally falls outside the job description of most employees, and is generally performed at a less than adequate level. The failure to diligently monitor ticket availability often results in tickets going unused. The failure to properly record guests and business purposes accomplished by attending specific events prevents subsequent review/evaluation of ticket package utilization, and may result in negative ramifications from an income tax standpoint should deduction of ticket and entertainment expenses be called into question. Also, the failure to properly allocate ticket and associated expenses between departments is a cause for intra-company conflict. All of these negative factors conspire to reduce the desirability of purchasing season or multiple event ticket packages, and may ultimately result in cancellation or non-renewal of such season or multiple event ticket packages.
Therefore, there exists a need in the art for a device and method which eases the burdens placed upon ticket administrators. There also exists a need in the art for a device and method to properly track ticket usage and availability, and for allocating ticket and associated expenses between departments.